THANKS TO DILIGENCE OF WESTBOROUGH PROBATION CHIEF MOTHER RECEIVES CHILD SUPPORT IN CASE THAT
DATES BACK MORE THAN 30 YEARS

A Worcester County single mother gave up on ever receiving child support payments from her ex-husband. The ex-husband, Paul M. McNeil, was brought into court on numerous occasions, dating back to 1971, for failing to pay and then eventually vanished.

To her surprise, more than 30 years later, the mother received a call from Westborough District Court Acting Chief Probation Officer Steve Santora who informed her that her husband was brought into custody and forced to pay the overdue child support amount of $17,500. The woman, who does not want to be identified for fear that she will embarrass her two grown children now in their mid-30's, wrote a letter to Westborough District Court First Justice Paul S. Waickowski which praises Santora for his efforts.

She wrote: "I picked up a check for a portion of some very overdue child support at the Westborough Court House. This was a wonderful surprise for me as my children are grown and this case goes back to the many years I struggled to support them on my own. Steve Santora handed the check to me. I was very happy to meet him as he had worked with great determination to obtain this money for me. Long after I had given up hope, Steve kept saying "I really want to get this money for you" and he kept trying."

In 1971, a Westborough District Court judge ordered McNeil to pay $105 a week in child support to his wife and two children. McNeil was inconsistent in his payments. Three years later, his weekly payments were lowered to $95 a week. McNeil again failed to make the payments and later moved to Florida where he spent time in out of prison.

Meantime, his former wife continued with her life and "resigned" herself to finding a job and raising her children without any financial assistance.

"He (McNeil) made promises to the children that he never kept. Eventually, I heard through a friend that he had died. After that, I never thought anything about it. I just did what I had to do. When I got a call from Steve, it was a pleasant shock," the mother said.

The woman and her two grown children celebrated with a trip to Disney World.Santora had some involvement with the supervising of this case during the span of his career from his position as Probation Officer to the time he was appointed Acting Chief Probation Officer. The case became a cold case in 1989, according to Santora, but "reared its head" in October 2000 when McNeil called his attorney to negotiate a return to Massachusetts. He disappeared again. Then, Santora received a lucky break in the case.

"I received information that he was in Florida and ran a record check and found that he had been arrested for OUI. The Florida police gave me an address. We attempted to track him down but he had moved from the address. We found him at another address in Royal Palm Beach, Florida and sought assistance from the District Attorney and the local police. He was arrested and brought back to Massachusetts," Santora said.